tsa 2011 seminar primary 6 english language · 29 november 2011 primary 6 english language. 2...

TSA 2011 Seminar

Dr. Amy Cheung

Education Assessment Services Division

29 November 2011

Primary 6 English Language

2

Territory-wide System Assessment

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Assessment Time: 2 minutes Presentation

Assessment TimeSub-paper

Preparation Time: 2 minutes

Assessment Time: 3 minutes

Reading Aloud and Teacher-Student

Interaction

Speaking

50 minutes

6ERW1

6ERW2

6ERW3

6ERW4

Reading

&

Writing

About 30 minutes

6EL1

6EL2

6EL3

6EL4

Listening

P.6 English LanguageDimension/

Skill

3

69.8

70

70.2

70.4

70.6

70.8

71

71.2

71.4

71.6

71.8

2005 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011

P6

71.7

2011

71.671.571.371.370.5P.6English Language

(Listening, Reading

and Writing)

20102008200720062005

Percent Achieving Basic CompetencySubject and Level

Remark: Due to the concerns over the outbreak of H1N1 Human Swine Flu, the written components of TSA 2009 were cancelled and no data could be collected.

Percentages of Students Achieving English Language Basic Competency in 2005 – 2011*

4

Primary 6 TSA 2011Primary 6 TSA 2011Primary 6 TSA 2011Primary 6 TSA 2011

General Observations of

Students’ Performances

5

P.6 Student Performances in 2011

Listening

Weaknesses

• Connection between ideas

• Specific information

• Predicting development

• Rhyme

• Sequence

Strengths


• Main ideas


• Simile

• Sounds

• Intonation

Without the help of pictorial cues

Understand the overall meaning of spoken texts on familiar topics

6

Listening – Text-types

Persuasive Texts

- advertisements

Literary Texts

- jokes- poems

Information Texts

- announcements- news

Exchanges- conversations

2011

Procedural Texts

- instructions

Persuasive Texts

- discussions

Literary Texts

- stories- poems

Literary Texts

- stories

Information Texts

- weather reportsInformation Texts

- riddles

Exchanges- conversations

Exchanges- conversations- telephone calls

20102008

7

P.6 Student Performances in Listening – Strengths

• intonation• specific

information• sounds

• main ideas• connection

between ideas• simile

2011

• intonation• specific


• main ideas• connection

between ideas• sequencing

• intonation • specific


• main ideas (with pictorial cues)

20102008

8

P.6 Student Performances in Listening – Weaknesses

• main ideas (more

than one piece of information)

• personification• connection

between ideas

2008

• sequencing

• rhyme • connection

between ideas• predicting

development

• main ideas (more

than one piece of information)

• personification• connection

between ideas• predicting

development

20112010

9

Student Performances in Listening over the Previous 3 Years

LISTENINGLISTENINGLISTENINGLISTENING• Students performed better on tasks with familiar topics.• Even without the help of pictorial cues, students performed well in

some listening skills, e.g.- extracting specific information - grasping main ideas- understanding connections between ideas

• As in the previous years, students showed steady performance in discriminating among expressions of happiness, sadness, doubt and anger.

• Some students had difficulty in connecting ideas using contextual clues as in the previous years but there was a slight improvement in identifying main ideas when more than one piece of information was given in a spoken text.

10

P.6 Student Performances in 2011

Reading

Weaknesses

• Unfamiliar words

• Main ideas


(reference words)

• Inference skills

• Dictionary skills

• Onomatopoeia


Strengths


• Gist/Main ideas

• Connection between Ideas

• Simple reference skills


(pictorial cues)

11

Reading – Text-types

Procedural Texts - instructions

Persuasive Texts� - posters

Persuasive Texts� - posters

Narrative TextsLiterary� - poems� - stories� - plays�Non-literary

- personal recounts

Narrative TextsLiterary� - poems� - stories

Narrative TextsLiterary � - plays� - poems�Non-literary

- journals

Information Texts- dictionaries- contents page- glossaries- blurbs- children’s encyclopaedia

Information Texts- dictionaries- leaflets- maps and legends- programmes

Information Texts - charts- dictionaries- directories- information reports- notices- personal descriptions- programmes- tables

Explanatory Texts- captions- illustrations

Exchanges� - conversations �

Exchanges� - conversations � - messages� - postcards

Exchanges� - conversations� - newsletters�

201120102008

12

P.6 Student Performances in Reading – Strengths

• connection between ideas

• specific information

• main ideas

• predicting development (pictorial cues)

• simple reference skills

• simple inference skills


• unfamiliar expressions

• sequencing

• main ideas

• predicting development (pictorial cues)

• simple reference skills

� simple inference skills


• unfamiliar expressions

• rhyme

201120102008

13

P.6 Student Performances in Reading – Weaknesses

• inference skills

• main ideas

• unfamiliar words


• dictionary skills

• predicting development


• main ideas



• dictionary skills


• inference skills• main ideas• unfamiliar

expressions

• reference skills

201120102008

14

Student Performances in Reading over the Previous 3 Years

READINGREADINGREADINGREADING• Generally students performed better in tasks on familiar topics.• As in the previous years, students were able to grasp the gist

and extract specific facts from informational texts, e.g. glossaries and notices. Quite a number of them could interpret figurative language, e.g. personification, simile and onomatopoeia.

• Their reading skills did not extend to interpreting unfamiliar words or expressions from context or connecting ideas from a text involving continuous prose.

• Students lacked basic vocabulary to build a cognitive schema to comprehend a written text

• Exposure to different genres would encourage use of pronominal reference and lexical cohesion to connect ideas in a text.

15

TSA 2011 Writing 1 – Winning a Drawing Competition

This writing task asked students to give an account of winning a drawing competition based on the prompts given in a mind map.

A small number of students

wrote about a lucky draw

instead of winning a

drawing competition.

16

TSA 2011 Writing 2 – A Class Picnic Last Friday

This task asked students to give an account of a class picnic held last Friday based on the prompts given in a mind map.

17

Student Performances in Writing over the previous 3 Years

WRITING WRITING WRITING WRITING ---- ContentContentContentContent• In general, students performed better in writing a narrative

and an informal letter than an expository task (the last one required students to give suggestions)

• Students had more ideas to write about when they were familiar with the topics

WRITING WRITING WRITING WRITING ---- LanguageLanguageLanguageLanguage• Repeated use of action verbs and language patterns was

evident in some students’ works over the last few years• Students could use simple cohesive devices to make their

writing more coherent• Past tense was not consistently used and passive voice was

often used inaccurately and unnecessarily• Spelling mistakes in known words were found• Problematic language patterns and awkward phrasing –

mostly traceable to L1 interference

18

Common Mistakes in Student Writing

Verbs

‘Winning a Drawing Competition’• I will more hard-working.

(I will be more hard-working)• I will donated one hundred dollars.

(I will donate one hundred dollars.)• Have you ever join one before?

(Have you ever joined one before?)

‘A Class Picnic Last Friday’• I were crying too.

(I was crying too.)

• We were went to a new school.(We went to a new school.)

• We was go back school.

(We returned to school.)

19


Verbs

‘Susan and the Cat’• Susan is very like her.

(Susan likes her very much.)

‘A Big Mistake’• Paul near the woman. The woman is sleep on the bus.

(On the bus, Paul sat near a woman. The woman was sleeping.)

• The teacher said, ‘Why do you too late?’(The teacher said, ‘Why are you so late?’)

‘My Classmate (Diary Entry)’• Today, I’m go to P.5 now.

(Today was my first day in Primary 5.)• ‘He are very kind and cheerful.

(He is very kind and cheerful.)

20


Verbs

‘An Injured Dog’• I could saw its leg was hurt.

(I could see the dog’s leg was hurt.)

‘My Dream’

• The robot are very rush to help his friend to send his letter.

(The robot rushed to help his friend…)

21


Word Choice

‘Winning a Drawing Competition’• He called me to joy the competition.

(He asked/invited me to join the competition.)• I saw a TV.

(I watched TV.)

‘A Class Picnic Last Friday’• At that things, we learned that we should play games

carefully so that we will not hurt ourselves.(After this event, …)

• We ate food on the tree floor.(We ate food on the grass.)

22


Word Choice

‘Staying Healthy’• If we can healthy, we’ll get many friends.

(If we are healthy, we can make many friends.)• We can do a healthy people.

(We can become healthy people.)‘A Big Mistake’• The story adive people must care the bus to where.

(The story advises people to be sure they take the right bus.)‘My Dream’• I and the robot will do good friend.

(The robot and I will become good friends.)

23


Word Order

‘An Injured Dog’• I can’t saw where is his master.

(I could not see where his master was.)• I worried a dog, but i don’t know can do what.

(I was worried about the dog but I did not know what I could do.)

‘Winning a Drawing Competition’• I was thinking how should I use the money.

(I was thinking how I should use the money.)

24

‘Winning a Drawing Competition’

• It is about in the forest are so many animals.

(It is about a forest full of animals.)

• I saw this competition can win HK$1,000.

(I saw this competition before and I hope I can win HK$1,000.)

• My heart was happy.

(I was happy.)

• I were very happy because is frist I won the competition.

(I was very happy because I won the competition for the first time.)

Sentence Structures


25

‘A Class Picnic Last Friday’

• I with my friend in there walk.

(My friend and I walked there.)

• That day had a big wind.

(There was a big wind that day.)

• The lunch was delicious, had chicken wing, fish ball, cola and another food, we ate feel was joyful.

(The lunch was delicious. We had chicken wings, fish balls, colaand some other food. We felt joyful.)

Sentence Structures


26


‘Susan and the Robot Cat’• The cat in the bag is very long time.

(The cat was in the bag for a very long time.)• The cat is go out.

(The cat went out.)• She saw a toy cat is very beautiful.

(She saw a toy cat which was very beautiful. OR

She saw a very beautiful toy cat.)

‘Staying Healthy’• We get healthy is easy.

(It is easy for us to get healthy.)

Sentence Structures

27


‘My Classmate (Diary Entry)’• She name call Kimmi.

(She is called Kimmi. OR Her name is Kimmi.)• Teacher was not free, so called me teach her did her

homework. (Our teacher was busy, so she asked me to teach Kimmi how to do her homework.)

Sentence Structures

28


‘An Injured Dog’• I bought some food to give it. (I bought some food to give to it.)

‘Spare Time Activities’• Drama and drawing can learn new skills.

(We can learn new skills from drama and drawing.)• Tennis and swimming – can give us meet new friends.

(Tennis and swimming can give us a chance to meet new friends.)

Sentence Structures

29


‘My Dream’• There were many people is I never seen.

(There were many people I had never seen.OR There were many strangers there.)

• I thought brought the robot to saw doctor. (I wanted to take the robot to see the doctor. ORI thought I should take the robot to see the doctor.)

• I looked like the robot is big and long. (I saw that the robot was big and tall.)

Sentence Structures

30

‘A Letter to a Pen-friend’

• I have planned you to go to…

(I have planned for you to go to…)

• You can go to the Peak because in the Peak sightseeing the Hong Kong is very good.

(You can go to the Peak for sightseeing because it has a very beautiful view there.)

• I sit the table car go to see the dolphin shows.

(I took a cable car to see the dolphin shows.)

Sentence Structures


31

Common Mistakes in Student Writing – Vocabulary/Spelling

‘Winning a Drawing Competition’• goast � (ghost); excitied � (excited); donte � (donate);

diffient � (different), graps � (grapes); brough � (brought); beaitful � (beautiful)

• taked � (took); drawed � drew• I want to be a drawer (painter).

‘A Class Picnic Last Friday’• countain park � (country park); presious � (precious);

disguessed � (discussed); intresed/inetested � (interested); muise � (music); hosptual � (hospital); luckly � (luckily); dangred � (dangerous)

32


‘Susan and the Robot Cat’• The cat is very cate (cute). It is beauting (beautiful).• It (The cat) runed (ran) awary (away).• Susan must stayed (stay) after school.• In Chinese lesion (lesson)

‘Staying Healthy’• eating madison (taking medicine)• geting (getting) enough rest• There are many choose (choices) to eat. • We should do more exricese (exercise).

33


‘A Big Mistake’• He standed (stood) at the bas (bus) stop.• Asusall (as usual)• Luckly (Luckily), he was not late for school.• awayls (always)

‘My New Classmate’• Why do you studey (study) in this school?• We do (are) good friends now.• I was afarid (afraid).• Kimmi is a nice and clever gril (girl).

34


‘An Injured Dog’• The dog foller (followed) me.• pliote (police) station• I saw a dog at the connor (corner) beside a building.• I feeled (felt) surprise (surprised).

‘Spare Time Activities’• Watching TV is my last sugguest (suggestion).• Watching cartons (cartoons) is fun.• You need to (be) very caryful (careful).• We can go to the lidarye (library) to read stories (story)

books and newspapers.

35


‘My Dream’• The lady who is saling (selling) food is Jenny.• The robot sait (said), “Little boy…”• The dontor (doctor) said, “He…”• A few times (moments) are go (ago)…

‘A Letter to a Pen-friend’• can (go) sightseeing• …rided (rode) the cable car• fist � first; beaturfly � beautiful; ariided � arrived; T-shic �

T-shirt; bug � buy; pare � park; photoes � photos

36

Speaking – 2011 Read AloudRead AloudRead AloudRead Aloud• More than half of the students could read the texts fluently and

clearly despite a few mistakes in pronunciation.• Difficulty pronouncing words like ‘special’, ‘delicious’ (6ES01),

‘cousins’ (6ES03), ‘action’, ‘amusing’ (6ES07) and ‘dessert’, ‘lying’ (6ES09), and ‘happiness’, ‘support’ (6ES11)

• Dropped end consonants for words such as ‘shouted’ (6ES01), ‘home-cooked’ (6ES05) and ‘started’ (6ES07)

• More than three syllables – ‘celebrated’ (6ES01) and ‘decorating’ (6ES03)

• Initial consonant blend sounds – ‘clapped’ (6ES01), ‘prepares’(6ES03), ‘fresh’ (6ES05) and ‘friends’ (6ES09)

• Long vowel sounds – ‘choose’, ‘believes’ (6ES05), ‘indeed’(6ES11)

• Consonant digraphs – ‘eleventh’ (6ES01), ‘dishes’ (6ES03), ‘health’, ‘Thai’ (6ES05) and ‘shoulder’ (6ES11)

37

Speaking – 2011

TeacherTeacherTeacherTeacher----Student InteractionStudent InteractionStudent InteractionStudent Interaction• Students generally could provide relevant answers to

teachers’ questions.• Some could provide additional details on some more

familiar topics, such as Cooking (6ES05) and On Rainy Days (6ES09).

• Students performed better with questions that elicited specific information, such as ‘Who do you usually have dinner with?’

• Students did not respond as well to questions beginning with ‘how’ or ‘why’, e.g. How do you celebrate Christmas? (6ES03) Why is he your best friend? (6ES11)

38

Speaking – 2011

• Many students could deliver a speech or tell a story based on the information provided.

• Many of them could communicate their ideas quite clearly despite a few mistakes in pronunciation.

• Most students were awarded a bonus score for having appropriate eye contact with the oral examiners.

• More challenging task – What I Want to Be (6ES04) and Getting Lost (6ES12)

PresentationPresentationPresentationPresentation

39

Student Performances in Speaking over the Previous 3 Years

Reading Aloud

• More than half of the students could read the texts clearly despite a few mistakes in pronunciation.

• Problems with initial consonant blends, long vowels, words more than three syllables, words with ‘v’ sounds

Teacher-Student Interaction

• Students could generally provide relevant answers to the questions. Some could provide details on topics familiar with them.

Presentation

• Students were generally able to give a talk or tell a story based on the information given. Most students had appropriate eye contact with the oral examiners.

40

Comparison of Performances across Years – P.6 Listening

Progression of Performances

• sounds

• intonation


Challenges

• main ideas (more than one piece of information)



41

Comparison of Performances across Years – P.6 Reading



• simple inference skills

(with pictorial cues)


• sequencing

• main ideas


Challenges

• main ideas



• reference skills

42

Comparison of Performances across Years – P.6 Writing


Content

• interesting, relevant ideas

with some elaboration

Language

• cohesive devices

Challenges

Content

• clarity and coherence

Language

• vocabulary, sentence patterns, verb forms

• spelling / grammar

43

Comparison of Performances across Years – P.6 Speaking

• Elaboration of responses

• Pronunciation

Challenges

• Provide relevant responses

• Read texts quite

clearly


44

Conclusion

LISTENING

• Most students performed well in extracting specific information,grasping main ideas, understanding connections between ideas even without the help of pictorial cues.

• A slight improvement was observed in identifying main ideas when more than one piece of information was given.

• READING

• Lacked the skills of building a cognitive schema to comprehend a written text – grasping basic vocabulary, interpreting information and connecting ideas using contextual clues.

• Exposure to a broader variety of reading materials, e.g. riddles, poems and extended prose would encourage use of pronominal reference and lexical cohesion to connect ideas in a text.

45

Conclusion

WRITING

• Eager to produce a writing task of about 80 words

• Repeated use of action verbs and inconsistent use of past tense to narrate past events

• Spelling mistakes in rudimentary words – inadequate grasp of phonics

• Problematic language patterns and awkward phrasing –mostly traceable to L1 interference

SPEAKING

• Limited range of vocabulary and basic sentence patterns

• Difficulty in elaborating on the pictorial cues

46

END

THANK YOU!

47

P.6 TSA 2011 Listening – Strengths

Mary: I do have some sports shoes and socks I don’t wear now.

My feet have grown. The shoes and socks are too small

for me.

Specific information

48


Peter: Two things really – playing music and talking. We’ll talk about many

things. We’ll talk about our school – what’s new and what’s happening,

for example, raising money for the new swimming pool and asking

students to take part in the school drama competition.

Main ideas

49


Connection between ideas

Peter: Yes, sure. Today’s music is dedicated to all students in Primary 6.

They will be moving to a new school soon. The song is called

‘Farewell to You’.

50


Simile

Look at the big grey elephant

His legs as thick as trees

51


Sounds

Announcer: The concert is organised by Fred’s Sound Company.

52


Intonation

Peter: Stocking.

Susan: (doubt) What? Oh.h.h…Stoc-KING.

53

P.6 TSA 2011 Listening – Weaknesses

Connection between ideas

Mum: Summer will be here soon. The weather is getting

warm. It’s time to pack up our winter clothes.

54


Predicting Development

Dad: Well, John, look at all your winter clothes. I’m sure you can find a

few you do not need.

John: All right. I’ll try.

55


A. wide, meal B. fierce, teeth

C. stone, seen D. you, too

Rhyme

56


Sequence

I have some empty boxes. We can put the bags into them. Then we can easily carry

them downstairs.

Dad:

Also remember to fold the clothes neatly. Don’t put too many clothes into the bags.

Otherwise, the bags will break.

Mum:

All right. I’ll try.John:

Well, John, look at all your winter clothes. I’m sure you can find a few you do not need.Dad:

But Mum, I really don’t have many old clothes. John:

But there are many things to remember before we give our clothes away. First, the

clothes must be clean and must not be too worn out.

Mum:

57


Specific Information

Reporter: We’ll have another news update at a quarter to midnight.

58

P.6 TSA 2011 Reading – StrengthsSpecific information

59

Gist/Main ideas

P.6 TSA 2011 Reading – Strengths

60

Connection between Ideas


61


Simple Reference Skills

62



63

Connection between Ideas

P.6 TSA 2011 Reading – Weaknesses

64

P.6 TSA 2011 Reading – WeaknessesInference Skills

65

Main ideas


66

Onomatopoeia


67



68

Dictionary Skills


69

Unfamiliar Words


70

P.6 TSA 2011 Writing 1 (BC)

Content

• provides some brief ideas• ideas are quite clearLanguage• uses basic vocabulary, e.g. ‘donate’, ‘suddenly’, ‘join’• correct use of cohesive devices, e.g. ‘At that time’, ‘Suddenly’• attempts to use complex sentence patterns, e.g. ‘When I went

back home, I was thinking how should I use (I should use)…’• awkward phrasing, e.g. ‘my heart was happy’ (I was happy)

71

P.6 TSA 2011 Writing 1 (Best Student)

Content• provides interesting ideas with

plenty of supporting details• ideas are very clear • coherent links between sentences

within paragraphs • gives an appropriate ending

Language

• uses a good range of vocabulary- verbs: ‘touched’, ‘donated’, ‘understand’- adjectives: ‘blind’, ‘deaf’- nouns: ‘competitors’, ‘meaning’, ‘countries’, ‘encouragement’, ‘champion’, ‘charity’, ‘nations’

• good use of complex sentence patterns, e.g. ‘I really thank my mom who gave me the main idea of the painting’, ‘Hopes are everywhere wherever there are children’

• appropriate use of prepositions, e.g. good ‘at’, the meaning ‘of’

• appropriate use of cohesive devices, e.g. ‘but’, ‘too’, ‘and’

72

P.6 TSA 2011 Writing 2 (BC)Content

• provides some brief ideas• ideas are quite clearLanguage

• uses basic vocabulary• attempts to use complex

sentence patterns, e.g. ‘When we arrived there, there was no people’

• awkward phrasing, e.g. ‘That day had a big wind’

• uses a limited range of cohesive devices, e.g. ‘When’, ‘After’

• inconsistent use of past tense• some grammatical mistakes,

e.g. ‘After a (an) hour’, ‘Our kites flied (flew) very high’

• some spelling mistakes, e.g. ‘barbeuse’ (barbecue), ‘Luckly’(Luckily)

73

P.6 TSA 2011 Writing 2 (Best Student)

Content

• provides interesting ideas with plenty of supporting details

• ideas are very clear • coherent links between sentences

within paragraphs• gives an appropriate ending

Language

• uses a range of vocabulary

- verbs: ‘arrived’, ‘yelled’, ‘thought’, ‘try’- adjectives: ‘cute’, ‘excited’- adverbs: ‘loudly’, ‘suddenly’- nouns: ‘countryside’, ‘snacks’, ‘hide-and-seek’

• correct use of complex sentence patterns, e.g. ‘After we arrived, we found…’, ‘A lot of people yelled but I didn’t’

• use of dialogue convention, e.g. “It’s time to go now!”

• a few grammatical mistakes, e.g. ‘Although it was late, [but] I was very happy!’

74


Host: Alan and Mary wished Peter good luck and

continued walking along the main path…Can

you guess what happened? The main path soon

went downhill and Alan and Mary found a road

and a bus stop within an hour.

Main ideas

75

P.6 TSA 2007 Reading – Strengths – Notices

76

P.6 TSA 2008 Reading – Strengths – PostersSpecific information

77

P.6 TSA 2007 Reading – Strengths – ChartsLocating information

78


79


80

You are going to talk about what you want to be when you grow up.

The following questions may help you:• What do you want to be when

you grow up?• Where does a/an ______

work?• What does a/an ______ do?• Why do you want to be a/an

______?• Can a/an ______ help

people?• What will you do to become

a/an ______?

81

John got lost last Sunday. Tell

a story about him.

The following questions may help you:

• Where were John and his mother?

• Who was his mother talking to?

• What did John do?

• How did his mother feel?

• What did she do?

• What happened in the end?

tsa 2011 seminar primary 6 english language · 29 november 2011 primary 6 english language. 2...

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